Desert Adventure

[Broch]

no premanent 4x4 should be towed any great distance - recovery is Ok but much further leads to massive problems

If you want to tow a Defender et al you'll need to remove the rear drive shaft at least and both boxes in neutral.

Interesting, Land Rover's own advice (and the way we have always done it on Military and civilian vehicles) is to tow with both boxes in neutral and diff locks released - all you are doing is turning the box output shafts. There's no wind-up and there should be no problems.

If the front is lifted it is recommended that you remove the front prop shaft or, for short recoveries, allow the front wheels to spin with the diff lock engaged.

We have never had problems with these methods.

 

[EdS]

That is the way a lot of folks do it but it can cause problems over long distances - for UK recovery/ tow home you'd be OK but when you are look at long distances it can be an issue.

As for ilitary - isn't it isi it breaks its REMEs problem

To be honst it only takes 5 minutes to remove the props if you get the proper tool.

 

[Broch]

As for ilitary - isn't it isi it breaks its REMEs problem

.

In my MOD days it was 'driver maintainer' so if you didn't look after your vehicle you spent drinking hours fixing it (well, within reason REME did the big stuff).

I would be happy to be convinced of the reason why mechanical damage can be caused over long distances - is it anything to do with the gearbox oil delivery? As I said - I've towed vehicles through desert conditions with no problems (probably hundreds of miles not thousands though).

Cheers,

Broch

 

[EdS]

no idea really. It was genral advise I was given years ago, it was evne in the hand book of my old 90.

Thinking about it - probably better to say remove x,y and z rather than push this and that, sort of idiot proofing it.